The Bully of Valentine's Day
by iworkwithpens
Summary: Cupid is freakish and so are Sloan Sabbith's people skills. Takes place right after episode 1 x 05- Amen.


**Author's Notes: A surprise fic for LilacMermaid who at times, I'm sure, feels like she's the only one posting prompts anymore. See, they still work. This one was inspired by the following: after the "why can't it be fixed?" conversation, Sloan approaches Will about Mac. I say surprise fic cause you didn't beta it before it got posted…try not to be horrified if there are any errors! And thanks for all your hard work on a certain story. This starts off a little dark, but give it a chance. Still don't own The Newsroom…man I hate having to say that!**

Sloan Sabbith knew she was not a people person. She never had been. She was a numbers person. Give her a math problem and she could solve it in no time. Give her a truckload of new tax laws and she could have them memorized before most could even understand what they meant. But as she looked over at Mackenzie McHale she knew that, for once, she had to _try_ to put her limited people skills to use.

Sloan had watched as the entire staff filed past Will giving him their contribution to the Save Kahlid fund. She was starting to believe Mackenzie had been right when she'd told her the man had a heart as big as a Range Rover. That didn't mean he wasn't a total idiot though.

She could see Mackenzie quietly disentangle herself from Will's unexpected embrace and slowly make her way back to her office. Will made small talk with the last few remaining staffers in the newsroom, but he never looked back towards Mackenzie's office to see what Sloan saw. The shaking of Mac's shoulders as her head dropped into her hands.

"You're an ass" she announced as she entered Will's office twenty minutes later.

"Hello to you too Sloan" he replied.

"Are you trying to be an ass or does it just come naturally?"

"It's a god-given talent, why do you ask?"

"Because I don't have a lot of friends Will."

"I can't imagine why Sloan."

"Let me finish. I don't have a lot of friends, but I would like to consider Mackenzie McHale one of them and you're hurting her."

"I think you have that the wrong way around."

"I know she hurt you. I've been hurt like that too Will."

"No you haven't Sloan. You may think you know what went on between Mac and I but you don't. Now, let's drop the subject and go back to the moderately friendly working relationship we had before and not this unbelievably uncomfortable exchange of personal information you're trying to delve into."

He turned away from her and stared out the windows of his office.

"Ok, I won't pretend I know what happened between you two. But I do know that she's sorry. More sorry than you could possibly imagine."

"That's great. I'm glad to know she's sorry. Will that get the image of her fucking her ex-boyfriend out of my head any sooner?" he asked.

Sloan stood perfectly still, not knowing exactly how to respond to that. He turned his office chair around and faced her.

"Seriously, I want to know Sloan. Does the fact that I know she's sorry mean that somehow I don't have to remember that for one-sixth of the time we were together she was sleeping with someone else? Or that for nearly a year she lied to me about it?"

Sloan was momentarily taken aback. She thought Will and Mac had been in a better place lately, that's why she started this. She began to take a seat on the couch against the far wall of his office.

"Don't sit. You won't be staying" he told her. She sat anyway.

"What do you want from me Sloan?"

"I want you to give her a chance."

"I did. She still works here doesn't she?"

"That's it? That's the best you can do? A reasonably cordial working relationship?" Sloan demanded.

"That's more than I would have thought we would have a couple of years ago."

"Why can't it be more Will?"

"For Christ's sake Sloan! Why the sudden interest in my love life? You barely spoke to me several months ago. Can't we go back to _that_ working relationship?" he demanded.

"No, several months ago I didn't know _her_" Sloan replied looking across the newsroom at Mackenzie's office.

"And what, now you're her defender?" Will asked incredulously.

"No, she doesn't need me for that. But I'm standing here day after day watching you date some sort of reality show contestant line-up and watching her try to pretend she gives a shit about Wade Campbell. Maybe you two could at least try to admit you suck at dating other people!"

"We didn't do so well dating each other either Sloan, remember?"

"Who says the past predicts the future?"

"My world history professor. Seriously Sloan, what do you want me to do about this? I get that she's sorry, I do. Maybe she even believes that she understands what she did to me. It doesn't change the fact that whenever I look at her, that's what I see!" he shouted.

Unfortunately, neither had noticed Mackenzie standing just outside the doorway. She stood there, stunned into immobility.

"Mackenzie…" Will began, but didn't know how to finish.

"Good night. That's all I wanted to say. Good night to you both" she told them and turned to leave, walking away so quickly neither of them could stop her.

"Shit" he whispered under his breath.

"Wow, I think this just got a whole lot worse."

"Gee, you think Sloan?" he exhaled dropping his head into his hands.

"Should I go after her?" she asked him.

"No, I think you've done quite enough for tonight." He got up and began searching the newsroom for Mackenzie.

Sloan watched as he stormed off down the hallway. Crap! This was why she was not a people person.

She tiptoed down toward the elevators. There was a small storage room next to them that Mackenzie had once admitted to hiding in when she really needed a break from everything. She assumed Will knew her hiding spot as well.

She heard the yelling before she had even made it halfway down the hall.

"I'm sorry! I don't know how many ways to say it Will. If you have felt this way the whole time I've been back at NewsNight why didn't you just tell me? Why didn't you take me up on my offer to leave?"

Sloan could hear how rough and hoarse Mackenzie's voice was from crying. She never should have started this!

"I don't want you to leave Mac!"

"Sure as hell could have fooled me. That's really all you see when you look at me Will? One mistake? One fucking mistake!" she shouted.

"One mistake that went on for four months Mackenzie!" Will roared.

"I know! God, don't you think I know? I remember what your face looked like the night I told you. I have fucking nightmares about it Will! Worse than anything I dream about from a war zone."

"I don't know what to say to that Mac. Lord knows, I wish I could forget. There are a lot of things in my life I wish I could forget, but that has to be at the top of the list."

She really had been in way over her head, Sloan realized too late. She had no clue what these two had been through in their lives and she was trying to step in and play matchmaker.

"I don't have a long term contract here. I can give Charlie two week's notice and you can start looking for another EP" Mackenzie said softly, so softly that Sloan could barely hear her.

"You do have a contract Mac. And more than that we need you here" Will replied.

"You don't. I don't want to make your life any harder than it's already been Billy."

"Please don't leave Mackenzie. Not again" Will pleaded.

"I left last time because I didn't want you to have to look at me. I thought maybe enough time had passed that it wouldn't cause you pain anymore. I guess I was wrong."

"It's not what you did that causes me pain now Mackenzie. It's what it cost us."

She heard Mackenzie suck in her breath as if what he had just said had actually hurt her physically. Oh Jesus, she really should not be listening to this. Sloan wanted to crawl into a hole and die knowing she had started this, and even worse, that she was standing here listening to the two of them bare their souls to each other.

"Don't you think I know what I've lost? I see it every fucking day of my life Will! I watch you parade your dates through here like some warped episode of The Dating Game. And I pretend I can make a life with Wade fucking Campbell!"

Well Kenz, at least you admitted that relationship was doomed from the start. Sloan almost snorted out loud before remembering that they would hear her. She heard what sounded like someone sliding down the wall and dropping onto the pile of crushed cardboard boxes that were stored in the corner of the room.

"You're never going to get up from there you know?" Mackenzie said.

"I've got worse problems than whether or not my knees will support me when I try to get up off this floor. Come here Mackenzie."

Sloan heard Mac's heels clicking across the floor.

"I don't know what to do to make this easier for you Will."

"I don't either. And it's not true Mac. I don't only see what you did when I look at you. Maybe that's part of the problem. I see the best EP in the business. I see my friend and most trusted partner. And I see the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and I don't know how to mesh that with the woman who cheated on me."

"I was scared Will, that's all. I was terrified that I was going to screw up the best thing that ever happened to me, so I just went ahead and made that happen."

"I know that. I think part of me knew that all along. Doesn't change the fact that you slept with him."

God Will….let it go man, Sloan wanted to scream. She will never make a mistake like that again. Just give her a chance.

"I can't change that Will. God knows, I wish I could."

"I know Mackenzie, I know."

They were quiet for a few minutes before Sloan could hear Will clear his throat and ask, "Hey, what happened to Mr. Future Congressman?"

"I told him to go to hell." That a girl Mac, Sloan thought.

"That's my girl" Will chuckled.

"I was once" Mackenzie replied sadly.

"Hey, it's Valentine's Day and we're sitting here on a pile of cardboard boxes weeping over lost loves. What the hell are we doing Mackenzie?"

"I don't know Will. I never know what I'm doing anymore. Except for one hour a night when it all seems to come together" Mac whispered.

"Well, we still have that then, don't we?"

Shit Will, kick a girl while she's down. Are you really telling her that's all you'll ever have? Sloan decided she was definitely going to need help on this one. You would need a team of Freudian analysts in here twenty-four seven to get these two to admit that they still loved each other.

"Yeah, we still have that Will. Always." Mackenzie replied, as if she were trying to convince herself that that was enough.

"I'm sorry. I'm trying Mac. You have to know I'm trying."

"I know you are. Sometimes that makes it worse Will. We never used to have to try this hard" Mackenzie muttered.

"Maybe that was part of the problem to begin with."

"What?" Yeah Will, what the hell does that mean? Sloan thought.

"I don't know. It was always so easy between us Mac. I was nearly forty-five years old when we started dating and I had never talked to someone for hours on end before without even having to think about what I was saying. I had never felt such an immediate connection with someone. We never had to work at it and maybe we took it for granted that it would always be that easy."

"Easy? I never thought someone would describe being with me as easy" Mackenzie chuckled.

"It was Mackenzie. It was the easiest thing in the world to fall in love with you."

Damn, when would somebody say that to her? Sloan could see what Mackenzie meant about the man being gruff but loveable.

"Then why is everything so hard now?" Sloan heard Mackenzie ask quietly. It almost sounded like her words were being muffled by something. Maybe by leaning into Will?

"Maybe this is how we figure it all out Mac. Maybe we'll both have to work a little harder at it this time. They say anything worth having is worth fighting for. We never had to fight for it before Mackenzie."

"Are you saying we still have something _to_ fight for?" Mackenzie almost sounded like she was pleading with him now.

"Yeah, maybe I am. Don't leave Mackenzie. Give it time, ok?" Will pleaded.

"Ok."

This was the point where Sloan should have tried to make a clean get away. She should have snuck back down the hallway before they could realize she had been standing there the whole time. But Sloan Sabbith had never had any useful knowledge of human interaction, so she just stood there as still as a statue, pressed into a dimly lit corner, and hoped she would remain unseen.

She watched quietly as they made their way down the hallway, Will's arm wrapped tightly around Mackenzie's shoulders, and tried not to squeal in delight.

"Goodnight Sloan" Will shouted back as he and Mackenzie pushed their way through the newsroom doors.

"I thought I was being quiet and unobtrusive" Sloan called out.

"You are _never_ quiet and unobtrusive Sloan. Happy Valentine's Day" Will shouted.

"Happy Valentine's Day indeed. I deserve a promotion" Sloan whispered to herself as she left the building in search of her co-workers down the street at Hang Chew's.

Maggie would kill to hear this one, but she would try to keep it to herself for awhile. Maybe Will wasn't such an ass after all.


End file.
